Sandford Fleming

I associate Sandford Fleming's name as an inventor of standard time (the clock in Greenwich and the concept of "time zones"). I guess that is the first thing I learned about him in a picture book in grade school. When I started teaching Social Studies, I was reminded that Fleming was Canadian. In fact, he was a well-known surveyor for the railroad and eventually engineered much of the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
What recently peaked my interest in Samuel Fleming, however, was when I came across an interesting factoid. Apparently, it was Fleming that designed the image of the beaver on Canada's first postage stamp. I have already posted some thoughts about Canada's first stamp (and the first stamp to picture an animal), but I didn't know that it was designed by Sandford Fleming. I wonder if the image itself was his choice, or if he just designed it?

Postage Stamps 1851-1867

Between 1851 and 1867, Canadian stamps just continued to alternate through four different images that I have previously posted about: The Beaver, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, and Jacques Cartier. The only stamps that I have in my personal collection are #14,#15,#17(incorrectly labelled in picture), and #19 pictured above. The catalogue values of stamps in this condition are about $100, $40, $160,and $330 respectively, which means that you could realistically sell them for about 10% of that listed price
The real question is why was Canada making postage stamps at all before 1867... Isn't that when we became a country? Perhaps this is one more piece of evidence that our emergence as an independent country was (and still is?) a gradual process. When did our country really start anyways?
1534 - Jacques Cartier dubbed the region "canada"
1763 - Treaty of Paris after England gained possession of the region
1791 - Upper and Lower Canada formed as colonies
1812 - Canadians united in anti-American resolve
1840 - The Act of Union between Upper and Lower Canada
1851 - Canada issues its first postage stamp with an image of a beaver instead of the Queen
1867 - Confederation (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia)
1871 - Canada added Rupert's Land and British Columbia (sea to sea)
1912 - Provincial borders become essentially what they are today
1980 - Pierre Trudeau repatriated constitution
2??? - Canada becomes a republic



1 - Beaver              (mint $62 094.25, used $1688.30)
2 - Prince Albert     (mint $66 175.60, used $2611.05)
3 - Queen Victoria   (mint $159 958.50, used $231 677.00)
4 - Beaver              (mint $2139.55, used $326.50)
5 - Prince Albert     (mint $36047.70, used $2149.70)
6 - Queen Victoria          n/c
7 - Jacques Cartier   (mint $13055.25, used $2661.75)
8 - Queen Victoria   (mint $1409.45, used $953.13)
9 - Queen Victoria   (mint $12421.50, used $4629.35)
10 - Prince Albert    (mint $26211.90, used $8365.50)
11 - Queen Victoria  (mint $5196.75, used $2626.75)
12 - Beaver             (mint $19189.09, used $1597.95)
13 - Prince Albert    (mint $31053.71, $10672.35)
14 - Queen Victoria  (mint $630.45, used $133.35)
15 - Beaver             (mint $775.20, used $53.50)
16 - Prince Albert    (mint $18970.50, used $8264.10)
17 - Prince Albert    (mint $1583.35, used $236.00)
18 - Queen Victoria  (mint $1315,65, used $220.55)
19 - Jacques Cartier  (mint $1869.60, used $332.35)
20 - Queen Victoria  (mint $1072.30, used $439.55)

Empire of the Bay

This book is an epic tome with two volumes based on Peter Newman's previous books: "Company of Adventurers" and "Caesars of the Wilderness". Based on oft-quoted primary sources (journals, diaries, company records), it details the history of both the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest Company. It includes weird facts about the fur trade, crazy stories of adventure, detailed description of key individuals, and more. I didn't get bogged down in some of the minutiae of the Hudson's Bay Company business arrangements and stock holder meetings, but was captivated by some of the specific sections that happen to relate to Socials 10. 

-The detailed description of the beaver itself

-The meetings of "the Beaver Club" including a list of attendees

-The walking journeys of Samuel Hearne

-The Battle of Seven Oaks, including an eye-witness recollection of what was said

-The explorations of Mackenzie, Fraser, and Thompson

-The exploits of George Simpson, including his treatment of women

-The background story on John McLoughlin

etc.

This is the first book recommendation on my blog, probably because it the most often referenced in class. My copy of this book has a bunch of sticky notes and highlights for sections that I will read out in class or from where I have pulled quotes for worksheets or test questions. 

Empire of the Bay: The Company of Adventurers that Seized a Continent

The First Postage Stamp

My interest in history began when I was a young lad, and my dad bought my a Canadian stamp album. I have recently pulled it out again to revive my philatelic hobby.  Of course, how this relates to Social Studies 10 is Canada's choice for the first stamp. The most important symbol of our country at the time... the Queen? the Maple Leaf? Jacques Cartier? no, the Beaver. Unfortunately as you can see in this picture, this particular item is missing from my collection.

Of course, after this scintillating discussion of national symbols, students in grade ten are much more fascinated by the beaver itself. They all know that beaver furs were traded for hats, but a much more intriguing substance is found in the beaver's behind. In early Canadian history, beaver anus goo was used to treat headaches and according to wikipedia, is now used as "natural flavouring" in products such as vanilla and raspberry extract. I first ran across this factoid in the epic book called Empire Bay by Peter Newman, which contains a whole section on the beaver itself.

Just a warning to be wary of your word-choice when discussing this topic. As you may know, the Beaver magazine recently changed its name for this very reason.. Read the story here. Apparently, national symbols change over time just like the English language.